“My intention of this all is to keep Rory Gallagher alive in people’s memories and to introduce him to the younger generation, so they can discover a great musician and extremely kind person, who died much too soon,” said Ms Lehmann, who visited Ireland for the first time this year. “Ironically, although Rory disliked flying, he did put Cork on the world map. Now’s Cork’s chance to put Rory on the map! Cork International Airport needs an identity and Rory is the ultimate international symbol for Cork.”

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the group that owns British Airways also criticised the high travel taxes in Ireland, said he thought the amount of money spent on Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 was “outrageous” and that he agreed with Michael O’Leary, who described it as a “white elephant”.